St Mary’s Primary School on Dorset Street is to be divested from the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin from today.

It follows a pilot consultation process regarding the patronage of primary schools in March 2022.

Twenty-nine schools in Dublin Diocese participated in the consultation process by independent facilitators appointed by Minister for Education Norma Foley.

In an initial stage, the school community opted to change to new school patronage. Following this, the school community then expressed a preference that the school become an Educate Together (ET) school.

It is the first Catholic school in the State to transfer to ET. Other examples of transfer of patronage include St Enda’s in Dublin which passed from the Carmelite order to the City of Dublin Education and Training Board (CDETB).

Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell said that following the consultation process, he accepted the recommendation that St Mary’s School be divested. He thanked the parents, principal, teachers, staff and Board of Management of St Mary’s School for participating in the process.